Blue Bacon

   / Blue Bacon #1  

RobertBrown

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Green eggs and ham?
NOPE!
Blue bacon and eggs anyone?
I think I'll skip breakfast.


Behold.......the blue fat hog.
A first... I believe.
The Weird Pig - Album on Imgur

Some users suggested that the pig might have been in contact with chemicals that contained blue dye, rat poison, or that it might have suffered from a copper contamination, a bacterial infection or simply a genetic defect. The people who found it took some samples to the researchers of the University of California Davis to get them analyzed and solve the mystery.

The researchers explained in article how Californian wildlife often are exposed to anticoagulant rodenticide, which tends to change the pigmentation of the fat. Even more intriguingly, the people who found the pig left the carcass out in the open and realized that local predators would not even touch it, let alone eat it.

A mysterious pig with blue fat was found and the Internet is confused
 
   / Blue Bacon #2  
ok... that's a little wild!
 
   / Blue Bacon #3  
Photoshop?
 
   / Blue Bacon #4  
A spectral analysis of the fat should tell the tale, But I would not eat this pig.
 
   / Blue Bacon #5  
   / Blue Bacon
  • Thread Starter
#6  
I have seen lots of hogs that had yellow fat. We always theorized it was from the abundant water oaks and the acorns they drop. The flesh of those acorns is a yellow orange color. When the mast is heavy, the hogs will get a yellow hue to their fat.
That blue color occurs in nature, but rarely as food, and the color is so distinct.
Whatever that boar got into, he must have ingested a lot of it, for long period of time, cause he is blue as blue can be.
 
   / Blue Bacon #7  
It's caused by the pig ingesting an anti-coagulant rodenticide laced with a special dye to turn fat blue. Never eat a blue pig (or any other critter).

here's a fact sheet from UC Davis
UC Davis pamphlet
 
   / Blue Bacon #8  
It's caused by the pig ingesting an anti-coagulant rodenticide laced with a special dye to turn fat blue. Never eat a blue pig (or any other critter).

here's a fact sheet from UC Davis
UC Davis pamphlet

Well now we know what causes blue fat in a pig. Thanks. I knew we should not eat that thing.
 
   / Blue Bacon
  • Thread Starter
#9  
Rodenitcide was mentioned in the first post, see the AOL link.

The researchers explained in article how Californian wildlife often are exposed to anticoagulant rodenticide, which tends to change the pigmentation of the fat. Even more intriguingly, the people who found the pig left the carcass out in the open and realized that local predators would not even touch it, let alone eat it.

This exposure was prolonged at high levels, probably should have killed the boar, but as you can see it looks to be in fine shape....look how fat it is.
 
   / Blue Bacon #10  
I just learned something: don't eat blue bacon. Blue cheese, still okay.
 
 
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